constants class in php

Question

I once heard it's good to have one class with all your application constants so that you have only one location with all your constants.

I Tried to do it this way:

class constants{
    define("EH_MAILER",1);
}

and

 class constants{
         const EH_MAILER =1;
 }

But both ways it doesn't work. Any suggestions?

Where did you hear that? I think it's best to couple the constant with where it will be used. Also, what is EH in your example? I think that constant deserves a better name. — strager
– strager, Commented Mar 25, 2009 at 20:19
If you're doing a more procedural style application, I could see an argument for an include full of define()s, but, if you're working with OO, putting all the constants in a single class makes no sense. They belong with the class that they're (most) relevant to. — Sean McSomething
– Sean McSomething, Commented Mar 25, 2009 at 20:42

vartec · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-25 21:11:43Z

18

In the current version of PHP this is the way to do it:

class constants
{
   const EH_MAILER = 1;
}

$mailer = constants::EH_MAILER

Starting with PHP 5.3 there's better way to do it. Namespaces.

consts.php

<?php
namespace constants
const EH_MAILER = 1

...

other.php

<?php
include_once(consts.php)

$mailer = \constants\EH_MAILER

answered Mar 25, 2009 at 20:01

vartec

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4 Comments

This is the way I would suggest doing it.

This is the solution i was looking for. Without the namespaces of course! Tnx

Wouldn't that be \constants\EH_MAILER, or at the very least constants\EH_MAILER?

@Adam: You're right.There's been a lot of discussion about which will be namespace separator, in early versions it was :: (like in C++)

J.C. Inacio · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-25 20:01:33Z

0

What php version are you using?

See php's page for class constants

answered Mar 25, 2009 at 20:01

J.C. Inacio

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